Skip to content
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Email
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment
  • Features
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
Suburban Chicagoland

Suburban Chicagoland

Original News, Features & Opinion on Chicago, Illinois and America

  • About
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Our Writers
      • Ray Hanania
      • Bill Lipinski
      • Biography: Aaron Hanania
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Policy
    • Reach Out
  • Sections
    • Events
    • Opinion
    • News
    • Features
    • Seniors
    • Comic Strip
  • Library
    • “MIdnight Flight” Online Book
      • Midnight Flight Book Overview
      • Midnight Flight Introduction
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 1
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 2
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 3
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 4
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 5
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 6
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 7
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 8
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 9
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 10
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 11
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 12
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 13
    • Villages, Cities & Towns
    • Federal Office Holders
    • County Officials
    • Legislators
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
  • Comment
  • Podcast
    • Ray Hanania on Politics
    • Two Guys on Politics
    • Hanania on Tiktok
  • News Wire
  • Archive 2004-2013
  • Toggle search form
  • Hastings insurance legislation
    Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families Business
  • Mahnoor Ahmad campaign photo
    Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat Democrat
  • Sunday, October 26, the Village of Orland Park formally rededicated its Village Hall in honor of the late former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens Government
  • Fire at townhome at 13900 block of Berkhansted Court in Orland Park, just before midnight on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025
    Firefighter treated for dehydration battling townhouse fire in Orland Park – no residents injured Fire
  • Firefighters with the Orland Fire Protection District who responded to a fire in an apartment at 15200 block of Al Camino Terrace on Saturday morning said the next day that they did find a kitten that needed respiratory aid that they saved.
    FIRE UPDATE: Fire District releases photos of kitten saved from Orland Park apartment fire Saturday Features
  • two-story apartment building on the 15200 block of El Camino Terrace in Orland Park
    Orland Park apartment fire Saturday morning, no injuries Fire
  • Illinois Senator Michael Hastings addressing the Orland Township Democratic Organization Wednesday Oct. 12, 2022
    Hastings calls for bipartisan action to protect Illinois families from SNAP benefit shutdown Baby Boomers
  • Illinios Industrial Energy Consumers, information ad
    Get information on the Illinois Energy Omnibus Bill in Springfield Business
  • State Senator Mike Porfirio secured over $20 million to support infrastructure improvements and construction in the 11th Senate District.
    Senator Porfirio applauds more than $20 million in infrastructure repairs coming to the 11th District News
  • Dad and daughter reunited Lebving Law firm photo
    Little Girl Recovered and Reunited with Dad After Long Separation Dads' Rights
  • 11-03-25 OFPD Coffee living alone
    Orland Fire hosts meeting on helping Seniors who live alone Nov. 5 Baby Boomers
  • State Senator Michael Hastings introduces law to revive long dormant and degraded Tinley Park Mental Health Center into a Sports Park for the community. Photo courtesy of the State Senate President Don Harmon
    Hastings secures $250,000 grant for Easterseals Academy’s Tinley Park campus Health
  • Chicago ranks as 161st worst city for crime in new national survey Chicago
  • Kat Abughazaleh 9th DIstrict Congress 2026 candidate democrat
    Kat Abughazaleh raises over $520,000 in Q2 of 2025 with more than $630,000 cash on hand for 2026 Democratic primary election elections
  • Silent Threat: The True Dangers of Lithium-Ion Batteries — How to Stay Safe and Respond to a Battery Fire Fire
President George W. Bush walks across the tarmac with NFO Lt. Ryan Phillips to Navy One, an S-3B Viking jet, at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego Thursday, May 1, 2003. Flying to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the President addressed the nation and declared "Mission accomplished" in Iraq to justify diverting forces from Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

America is a divided nation that can’t get back on track

Posted on September 16, 2021September 16, 2021 By Ray Hanania No Comments on America is a divided nation that can’t get back on track
SHARE THIS STORY
            
 
  

America is a divided nation that can’t get back on track

The 20th Anniversary commemorations of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were sober and disturbing. But the failure of American politicians to get together as one voice to join as one nation is even more disturbing. President George W. Bush spoke about that polarization during his remarks at the Shanksville commemoration. Instead of bringing America together, our politicians prefer to keep us apart so they can benefit for themselves politically

By Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania

Twenty years of watching the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings has been very disturbing. But what is more disturbing is how divided America remains, polarized over politics, anger and hate.

Things are so bad in America that we couldn’t even get all of the presidents, the incumbent and the former presidents, to set aside their personal problems and focus instead on the American people.

Sept. 11, 2001 was a real trauma not just for the families who lost relatives that day – 2,977 were killed, but for the rest of America that lived in fear for the first few weeks as reports circulated of more violence.

You would think that the depth of the tragedy would be enough to force politicians on both sides, Republicans and Democrats, to set aside their angry hate for at least one day to focus on the shared tragedy that this country went through.

Ironically, it was former President George W. Bush who acknowledged this hatred that has divided America during his remarks at the site of the field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania where passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 rebelled against the terrorists and surely prevented the hijacked plane from crashing into the White House or the U.S. Congress.

President George W. Bush walks across the tarmac with NFO Lt. Ryan Phillips to Navy One, an S-3B Viking jet, at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego Thursday, May 1, 2003. Flying to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the President addressed the nation and declared "Mission accomplished" in Iraq to justify diverting forces from Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
President George W. Bush walks across the tarmac with NFO Lt. Ryan Phillips to Navy One, an S-3B Viking jet, at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego Thursday, May 1, 2003. Flying to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the President addressed the nation and declared “Mission accomplished” in Iraq to justify diverting forces from Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

“In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks, I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient united people,” Bush said at the Pentagon ceremonies.

“When it comes to the Unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. Maligned force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument and every argument into a clash of cultures. So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment.”

America is a divided nation. Very divided. And no one is doing anything about it.

I do a podcast each week now with former Congress Bill Lipinski, one of the nation’s iconic “Reagan Democrats.” Regan Democrats, for those who don’t know or who have forgotten, are Democrats who dismiss the extremism of the Left, and the extremism of the Right, and instead have found a centrist ground right in the middle between the two that embraces some of the views of the Left and some of the views of the Right.

These centrists, and I consider myself a Reagan Democrat, too, believe that the middle is where the nation’s only commonsense attitudes persist. They don’t believe in the 100 percent, which is in effect undemocratic and a form of despotism. Instead, Reagan Democrats look at all politicians and apply an 80 percent filter.

There are some things that former Presidents Bush and Donald Trump did right or said right, and there are some things that President Joe Biden and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did and said right, too.

Reagan’s former Chief of Staff Jim Baker recalled his boss explaining, “I’d rather get 80 percent of what I want than go over the cliff with my flags flying.”

That’s the kind of commonsense we don’t have any more.

Fueling the divide, and they will never own up to their contribution to the polarized hate driven divide, is the mainstream national American news media. They have been stoking the flames of hatred by favoring one side over the other.

They close their eyes to the violence and tyranny of the Black Lives Matter protestors, because they embraced the views of the Democratic far Left, but they exaggerated the crimes of the far right calling the same BLM like violence at the Congress on January 6 as an “insurrection.”

Jan. 6 was an insurrection only because the media and the far Left called it so. It was far less of an insurrection than the violent protests that destroyed thousands of businesses and killed and injured many more. That’s what the national media does best, speak from both sides of its hypocritical mouth.

When you try to point it out, taking a centrist approach to the various events, you are demonized if you are on the right and canonized if you are on the Left.

That ignorant attitude is what is undermining this nation. It was on full view last Saturday on Sept. 11.

What America needs is another Ronald Reagan. He wasn’t perfect. But he sure had more commonsense than any of the people who claim to be leaders today.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and political columnist. His mainstream political columns are published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. His Middle East columns are published in the Arab News. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at [email protected].) SUBSCRIBE BELOW

 

Subscribe to Ray Hanania’s Columns

* indicates required field.

 

Select Email Format


newswire info
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.  

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

Follow RayHanania at Twitter
Ray Hanania
Latest posts by Ray Hanania (see all)
  • Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families - October 29, 2025
  • Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat - October 29, 2025
  • Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens - October 29, 2025
NPV: 40
  • Tweet

SHARE THIS STORY
            
 
  
 
 
 
           
Blogger, Commentary, Federal, Government, Opinion, Politics, rayhanania Tags:2001, 20th anniversary, 9/11, commemoration, divisions, polarization, President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump, President George W. Bush, President Joe Biden, Reagan Democrats, Ronald Reagan, Sept. 11

Post navigation

Previous Post: Robert Falls to step down as Goodman Theatre Artistic Director in Summer 2022
Next Post: Falsely accused dad wins in court

Related Posts

  • PulsePoint Respond App, Orland Fire Protection DIstrict. Alerts on Cardiac Arrest incidents
    New App connects CPR/AED trained citizens with cardiac patients in need Fire
  • Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania
    The “Ricketts affair,” double standards and media hypocrisy Blogger
  • Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, 15th Ward, champions rights of Chicago residents
    Ray Lopez leads and champions rights of Chicago residents Chicago
  • Orland Park Veterans commemorate Veterans Day. Photo courtesy of the Village of Orland Park
    Orland Park Commission to salute Veterans  Baby Boomers
  • Archer Heights and SEIU HCII child care provider, Laura Maldonado, reading to children in her early childhood care program. Photo courtesy of Congresswoman Marie Newman
    Congresswoman Newman names childcare worker as virtual guest at Biden State of the Union address Chicago
  • Orland Township Back to School Health Fair banner 2021
    Orland Township Bringing Excitement with Back-To-School Health Fair coronavirus

More Related Articles

Illinois Joining Forces to Host Veteran’s Resource Fair as Part of Chicago Warrior Week Government
John Harrell and Gov. JB Pritzker and Speaker. Emanuel "Chris" Welch and other officials at ribbon cutting at new low income housing project Pritzker, Welch and regional leaders praise John Harrell and Black Men United for affordable housing project Civil Rights
Christopher Columbus statue Chicago Grant Park. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia American traditions like Thanksgiving should not be broken because of latter day spin Blogger
Ray Hanania and family Easter 1957. Midnight Flight: Online book on Race in Chicago Baby Boomers
Migrants working fields. Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Immigration needs more than reform, it needs to be fixed Bill Lipinski
Russian soldiers in front of the Kremlin. Photo courtesy of Steve hHarvey, LrwMuJNTIA unsplash Right from the Middle: Strengthening America’s defenses needed now more than ever Bill Lipinski

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Login with your Social ID
  • OPINION
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Papas
    Your Mortgage Company May Pay Your Taxes — But You Still Need to Watch
    October 17, 2025
  • Mohammed Faheem The Lightning Strike Radio Show small
    The Politicization of the Nobel Peace Prize — and Trump’s Fury Over Losing Again
    October 11, 2025
  • 06-04-25 Two Guys on Politics Background Zoom LOGO with images
    Video Podcast: Trump Kimmel Kirk Great American Divide Illegal Aliens polling and Illegal Aliens and ICE
    September 20, 2025
  • Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch speaking at a West Side affordable housing dedication
    Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, one of the best candidates to become Illinois Governor
    September 7, 2025
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Papas
    What You’re Missing on Your Property Tax Bill
    September 5, 2025
Subscribe to Ray Hanania's column graphic

Enter Your Email to Subscribe to Ray Hanania’s Columns

  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png

Mohammed Faheem The Lightning Strike Radio

  • NEWS
  • Hastings insurance legislation
    Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families
    October 29, 2025
  • Mahnoor Ahmad campaign photo
    Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat
    October 29, 2025
  • Sunday, October 26, the Village of Orland Park formally rededicated its Village Hall in honor of the late former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    October 29, 2025
  • Fire at townhome at 13900 block of Berkhansted Court in Orland Park, just before midnight on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025
    Firefighter treated for dehydration battling townhouse fire in Orland Park – no residents injured
    October 28, 2025
  • Firefighters with the Orland Fire Protection District who responded to a fire in an apartment at 15200 block of Al Camino Terrace on Saturday morning said the next day that they did find a kitten that needed respiratory aid that they saved.
    FIRE UPDATE: Fire District releases photos of kitten saved from Orland Park apartment fire Saturday
    October 26, 2025
John Kass Columns

Order the book PoweR PR; Ethnic Activists Guide to Strategic Communications

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO RAY HANANIA'S YOUTUBE VIDEOS


Click here to view the video on YouTube or use the widget below.

Follow Ray Hanania at
Twitter
Facebook
TitkTok
BlueSky
RayHanania Columns

Creative Commons License
All works on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

Categories

Copyright © 2022 Suburban Chicagoland & Urban Strategies Group

Powered by PressBook Premium theme